Martha Loeffler will never forget the surprise in her brother’s voice when she informed him last year of her plans to become an adult bat mitzvah. He wondered why, at the age of 82, would she go and do a crazy thing like that.
Her answer: “To see if I could do it.” This was characteristic of Loeffler, who has always liked a good challenge.
A busy mother (of grown children), grandmother, author and public speaker, the former Berkeley resident celebrated her adult bat mitzvah at Congregation Beth Shalom in Modesto on Oct. 5. In the Bay Area she is best known for her recent book “Boats in the Night,” which tells the little-known story of Danish citizen Knud Dyby, who was instrumental in rescuing Jews during the Holocaust.
Speaking by phone from her Modesto home, and still on a high from her recent simcha bash, she said she became a bat mitzvah because she wanted to see if she still had enough ability to learn to read Hebrew, and to fulfill the requirement of attending weekly Shabbat services.
When Loeffler was growing up in the 1930s, girls generally did not learn to read Hebrew or celebrate b’not mitzvah. “The only Hebrew I knew I learned from listening to my three brothers practicing for their bar mitzvah portions,” she recalled. “In my adult years I rarely attended the Shabbat morning service, which I found boring, because I was unable to follow along.”
Now, after a year of intense study and preparation at the synagogue where she has been an active member for years, she can read Hebrew as well as follow the reading of the weekly Torah portion. Praising her instructor, the Reform temple’s Rabbi Paul Gordon, for “a happy educational experience,” Loeffler noted that she was not alone in her journey to become an adult bat mitzvah.
In fact she celebrated her special day with two other “younger” women (both in their 60s), one of whom is blind. She said the three women have since become fast friends and enjoyed their unique choice topic of study: the story of Adam and Eve, from a feminist perspective.
“She has taught me as much as I have taught her, if not more so,” said Gordon, of Loeffler, one of his prize pupils.
Loeffler was born in 1919 in Oakland and grew up in Berkeley, where she was a longtime resident. Her Yiddish-speaking immigrant parents were ardent supporters of Israel and they raised her with a Reform background, attending Oakland’s Temple Sinai. She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from U.C. Berkeley, worked as a social worker at the Telegraph Hill Neighborhood House in San Francisco during World War II, and became a professional writer after decades of being a housewife and mother.
After “Boats in the Night” came out, she was honored by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem as well as at a special ceremony held in Copenhagen by the U.S. ambassador to Denmark.
Currently, she writes a regular column for the Modesto Bee and represents the local Jewish community as a speaker to various schools and groups throughout the area about the Holocaust as well as Jewish traditions and customs. She also serves as president of Modesto’s National League of American Penwomen and is about to be honored by the county as Senior Citizen of the Year.
The local Jewish community turned out in full force, with an overflow crowd, for Loeffler’s big day. There were also a great number of relatives as well as non-Jewish friends, who came in a show of support.
“Everybody should be bat mitzvah at least once!” exclaimed Loeffler. “It was an experience I will never forget.” She was especially touched when one guest pulled her aside and told her, “I think we have all been waiting for something to celebrate. With all the war talk and [recent] 9/11 observances, we have just been looking for a joyous occasion…and this is certainly it.”
Loeffler’s daughter-in-law, Sandy Loeffler, said, “Martha is a remarkable woman.” The younger Loeffler became a bat mitzvah herself at the age of 32.
“Until fairly recently there were no ceremonies to celebrate this momentous occasion in a girl’s life,” she said. “I hope Martha’s story will inspire people to reach for the stars in their own lives — particularly Jewish women — and continue their own learning.”